Family Research Council head defends Akin

By MAGGIE HABERMAN

08/20/2012 01:50 PM EDT

From POLITICO's James Hohmann in Tampa:

The Family Research Council offered strong support for Todd Akin on Monday afternoon.

“This is an effort to try to direct attention away from … Claire McCaskill, who has been supportive of Planned Parenthood — an organization that’s been under investigation for criminal activity,” FRC President Tony Perkins said in between meetings of the RNC platform committee.

Perkins lashed out at Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) for saying Akin should get out of the race.

“He should be careful because based on some of his statements there may be call for him to get out of his race,” he said of Brown. “He has been off the reservation on a number of Republican issues, conservative issues I should say. His support among conservatives is very shallow.”

Connie Mackey, the president of FRC Action PAC, said Republicans trying to ease Akin out lack “backbone.”

“We feel this is a case of gotcha politics,” she said. “He has been elected five times. That community in Missouri, they know who Todd Akin is. We know who Todd Akin is because we’ve worked with him up on the Hill. He’s a defender of life. He’s a defender of families. This is just a controversy built up, it looks as though, to support his opposition. Claire McCaskill on the other hand has supported Planned Parenthood all these years…Todd Akin is getting a very bad break here. We support him fully and completely.”

Mackey added that she’s not agreeing or disagreeing with his statement.

“I know nothing about the science or the legal implications of his statement,” she said. “I do know politics, and I know gotcha politics when I see it.”

The officials at SBA List have also reportedly defended Akin, setting up a dynamic in which the party's conservative base is protecting the staunchly pro-life candidate. Brown, as I noted earlier, is advised by some of the same consultants who advise Mitt Romney, who himself has strongly criticized Aken (although he has not called for him to step out of the race).

The bridge between Romney and social conservatives in the past two weeks has been his selection of Paul Ryan, who is himself staunchly pro-life and personally opposes a rape exemption for abortion, as a running mate, adding a different layer to this fight.